Big Update

This is a big update, so please be careful, as there are likely to be lots of bugs and maybe even regressions. It's still very much a moving target. The processor load is about 25% higher. There is still quite a bit of work to do, especially on the backends apart from ALSA.

The most obvious audible change is if you are using software volume control and can take advantage of 32- or 24-bit DACs. Dithering can now occur on a 32-bit or 24-bit sample rather than on a 16-bit sample, making the noise floor very much lower. This is the case, for example, with a Pimoroni PHAT DAC.

New Features

• 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, 24-bit three-byte (S24_3LE and S24_3BE) and 32-bit output to ALSA devices. (Other back ends are not updated yet.)
• 44,100, 88,200, 176,400 and 352,800 sample per second output. This is done using simple upsampling.
• Internal processing including software volume control and interpolation is done after sample size and rate conversion.
• Apple ALAC decoder support. This needs the libalac library, available at ALAC. Add the flag --with-apple-alac to the ./configure arguments. Then you can choose the Apple ALAC decoder in the configuration file.
• Support for mbed TLS has been added and the use of PolarSSL is deprecated, as mbed TLS is a development of PolarSSL and PolarSSL itself is not being developed further.
• Settings that were denominated in frames are now deprecated but still honoured. Deprecation warnings are issued.